Atmel Extends Li-ion Battery Lifetime and Safety With Single-chip Battery Management Family

San Jose, California (ots/PRNewswire) -

- Improved accuracy increases energy availability up to 15% and
additional monitoring functions ensure higher safety

Atmel(R) Corporation (Nasdaq: ATML) announced today a family of
single-chip Li-ion battery management devices. Combining Atmel's
patented high voltage manufacturing process and AVR(R)
microcontrollers' technology, the new family gives an extremely high
analog accuracy at very low power consumption, while ensuring that
portable handheld applications have all the necessary safety
functions.

Li-ion batteries are very popular in applications like mobile
phones, media players, digital still cameras, PDAs or notebooks to
name a few. While they offer high energy density, low weight and
volume, they require careful monitoring and charging control to
ensure safety and optimum life time.

Safety is a major criterion for battery usage and recent industry
problems -- generating huge recalls from manufacturers -- illustrates
the importance of safe and accurate control functions.

This also includes the need for authentication to ensure the user
will use a certified battery and not a copy that can potentially be
unsafe.

Atmel has been working with key battery manufacturers to develop
optimized solutions and is now offering a full range of
microcontrollers dedicated to Li-ion battery management supporting 1
to 4 cells. This product family offers a unique set of features to
optimize performance and safety.

By giving extremely accurate voltage measurements it is possible
to control the charge and discharge cut-off voltages more accurately,
thus making it possible to use up to 15% extra energy of the battery
compared to less accurate solutions while maintaining all safety
requirements.

The accuracy is achieved using Atmel's patented method for
calibrating the voltage reference in conjunction with high resolution
Delta Sigma Analog to Digital converters for voltage measurement.

The family consists of 6 devices targeting different end markets.
The ATmega4HVD and ATmega8HVD target the low-end consumer market
requiring protection and authentication. For applications requiring
gas gauge, the ATmega8HVA and ATmega16HVA are the ideal products,
while the ATmega16HVB and ATmega32HVB targets the notebook battery
market.

All parts are single chip battery side solutions incorporating a
protection with high-side N-channel FET drivers.

Development boards / Reference designs -

Atmel has designed reference design kits showing how to build a
complete battery pack using the new AVR battery management devices.
The reference design kits include complete firmware and provide all
needed safety measures for a Li-ion battery design. This includes
over- and under-voltage protection and protection against excessive
charge and discharge currents. The reference designs also features
high accuracy voltage and current measurements, temperature checks,
communication interface with command set based on battery
specification, authentication and gas gauging.

To evaluate the performance of the reference designs, they are
supported with the SB200 evaluation board. This board includes
Lithium-ion batteries, a programmable charger and load, and a USB
communication gateway between the reference kits and a PC. The SB200
connects to AVR Studio(R) by starting the AVR battery management
services plug-in. Through this interface all battery parameters can
be observed and modified, and the ATAVRSB200 functions are also
controlled through this interface.

Video podcasts introducing the new devices and the development
tools are available on the AVR TV website at http://www.avrtv.com.

Availability and Pricing -

The ATmega8HVA and ATmega16HVA, in 36-pin LGA and 28-pin TSOP
packages, are in production now. Engineering samples of the
ATmega8HVD in 28-pin DFN packages are available now, while the
ATmega4HVD, ATmega16HVB and ATmega32HVB will be sampling in Q1 2009.

Prices start at US$0.95, US$1.14, US$2.08 and US$2.49 in 10,000
quantity pieces for ATmega4HVD, ATmega8HVD, ATmega8HVA and
ATmega16HVA, respectively.

The ATmega8HVA and ATmega16HVA are supported by the SB201
reference design (ordering number: ATAVRSB201) that is available now
at US$139. The ATmega8HVD is supported by the SB204 reference design
(ordering number: ATAVRSB204) that will be available from October
2008 at US$99. The SB200 evaluation kit (ordering number: ATAVRSB200)
is available now at US$199.

About Atmel

Atmel is a worldwide leader in the design and manufacture of
microcontrollers, advanced logic, mixed-signal, nonvolatile memory
and radio frequency (RF) components. Leveraging one of the industry's
broadest intellectual property (IP) technology portfolios, Atmel is
able to provide the electronics industry with complete system
solutions focused on consumer, industrial, security, communications,
computing and automotive markets.

(C) 2008 Atmel Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Atmel(R), Atmel
logo and combinations thereof, AVR(R), AVR studio(R) and others, are
registered trademarks, or trademarks of Atmel Corporation or its
subsidiaries. Other terms and product names may be trademarks of
others.

Information:

Podcasts on new battery management devices are available at:
http://www.avrtv.com
Battery management product information can be retrieved at:
http://www.atmel.com/bm/
For further information on AVR microcontrollers, go to:
http://www.atmel.com/avr/

Press Contacts:
Philippe Faure, Marketing Communications Director - Microcontrollers
Tel: +33-2-40-18-18-87, Email: philippe.faure@atmel.com
Helen Perlegos, Public Relations
Tel: +1-408-487-2963, Email: hperlegos@atmel.com
Web site: http://www.atmel.com
http://www.avrtv.com

ots Originaltext: Atmel Corporation
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Contact:
Philippe Faure, Marketing Communications Director - Microcontrollers,
+33-2-40-18-18-87, philippe.faure@atmel.com, or Helen Perlegos,
Public Relations, +1-408-487-2963, hperlegos@atmel.com, both of Atmel
Corporation